


Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

by BloodMoonWitch



Series: Black is the Color [4]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Other, sorta?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 05:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20109859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodMoonWitch/pseuds/BloodMoonWitch
Summary: Just some more good and wholesome Muriel fluff. I don’t really know how else to describe this.





	Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

**Author's Note:**

> This is it. This is the story that started my need to write all the other stories about that sweet mountain man. I feel like I used the word “soft” way too much in this but oh well I’ll get over it.

We had stopped again for the night, luckily finding another inn not too far from where Morga had disappeared into the forest to go do whatever it was she did at night. It was the same odd story at this inn. 

“I’m sorry dears,” the kind and unusually short woman had said, “but we only have one room available. All the other rooms are . . . um . . . flooded! Yes, yes, terribly flooded, I’m afraid.”

With a wide smile on her face, she handed Muriel a key, and he remained characteristically quiet and neutral except for the light blush that he couldn’t keep from forming on his cheeks. 

We walked in silence up three flights of stairs, to what I assumed to be the very top of the inn, and Muriel unlocked the door and held it open for me. I thanked him, and his soft blush deepened slightly. The doorway was tight, so brushing against him was inevitable, but gods if I didn’t -accidentally- lean into him just a little bit more. 

At least this time the bed was much larger than the last one had been. There was no doubt that he and I should both fit without even having to touch each other. Inanna could even sprawl out at our feet if she wanted to. 

“Do you mind sharing?” Muriel said from behind me, having come to the same conclusion. I was surprised he hadn’t immediately started to fight me and insist on sleeping on the floor again. I saw the tension in his shoulders, the ache in his back, and I didn’t think his body could have taken sleeping on the hard wooden floors. For some reason, I was immensely proud of him. We had been on the road together for weeks, and sometimes it seemed like I was the only voice caring for his comfort. But more and more lately, he had started to understand that it was okay to seek the softer things in life, to rest when he had to and to ask for help if he needed it. 

“Of course not, Muriel.” I said with a smile, turning to him to find his eyes downcast towards Inanna, his hand gently petting her head. “I’m sure she could even fit with us.” He smiled so softly at her, then peaked his head up at me. 

Gods he was so beautiful like this. His hair was still pulled back by the braids Morga had given him, so I could see all of his face, from the scar on his brow to his blushing cheeks, as he smiled at me. 

“I think she wants to run around outside tonight.” With a small woof from Inanna as agreement, she jumped up to lick his face before turning and heading out the door that Muriel closed and locked behind her. 

There was no bath as there had been in the last inn, but there was a balcony with an incredible view of the river and the large mountain range off in the distance. I was drawn to it, the doors having already been opened, and stood beneath the darkening sky to watch the sun set to my left. 

“Come look at this, Muriel,” I called out to him. I heard the shuffling of leather behind me and turned to find him removing the series of belts and straps from his chest. He walked to stand with me in nothing but his pants and the scarf I had given him. I could see how much more comfortable and at ease he was without all of that leather scratching against his skin. I turned my head again as he stood behind me. I then realized just how small the balcony was, he couldn’t have stood beside me if he had tried. He just stood there, a comforting presence as we looked out over the landscape. 

I was startled by the feelings of a lock of my hair being played with gently, and I leaned my head back to look up at him. He immediately pulled his hand away, blushing as if the action had been absentminded and unintentional, taking a few steps back from me. 

He began to prepare for bed, and I reluctantly pulled away from the balcony to join him. I took the side of the bed closest to the balcony, pulling random cards from my deck as Muriel started a fire in the hearth across from the bed. He kept looking towards the door, expecting the soft scratch of Inanna’s paws signaling her return. 

“I don’t think she’ll be back tonight,” he said, finally satisfied with the fire and slowly moving to take his place on the bed beside me. I must have underestimated his size earlier, because our shoulders briefly touched before he blushed and shifted over slightly. I decided against mentioning it. 

“You two really care for each other,” I said, amused by the pull of his brow as he tilted his head in confusion. 

“Your mother-wolf and you,” I clarified. He hummed quietly. 

“She cared for me when not many others would.” He said things like that sometimes, and they always seemed to come out of their own accord because he always looked embarrassed afterward. Most times, he would just pretend that he had never said anything, but he surprised me again by continuing to talk. “I didn’t . . . I didn’t have you then . . .” The words looked like they took a great deal to say, the blush on his face deepening as he continued to stare ahead into the fire. I thought back to what he had told me before, about the coliseum and Inanna. 

“I understand how you feel,” I said, reaching over to gently place my hand on his shoulder. He seemed to relax under my touch, but didn’t say anymore. I didn’t know what to do with the silence that followed, so I just started talking. 

“I don’t remember much about . . . before, but I know that even now there are very few people I would trust to take care of me. There’s this one man I know. He has the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen, and the gentlest hands. I . . . I like him quite a lot. Maybe even love, but . . . I’m not sure if he feels the same. I’m afraid of pushing him too far . . . The last thing I ever want to do it make him uncomfortable. He deserves the world . . .”

I had to turn on my side to face away from him. I couldn’t help the traitorous tears that formed in my eyes. Why was I telling him all this? I was definitely pushing way beyond his limits, selfishly pouring my heart out to the man I knew I loved because I just couldn’t keep the words in anymore. I was already afraid that I had pushed him to far with the kiss, but talking about love . . . about loving him . . . that had to be crossing a line. 

“I just . . . I’m terrified that he’ll shut me out again and I’ll never get the chance to hold him. I don’t want to loose him. I don’t . . . I don’t want to loose you . . .” I said so quietly, and I hoped that he hadn’t heard. 

But then his breath hitched, and I could feel his eyes on the back of my head. 

The next few moments were spent in tense silence, and although I couldn’t see his face, I new he was thinking over every word I’d said. 

It felt like an eternity before I heard him take in another shaky, deep breath, then the creaking of the mattress as he shifted down to lay so closely beside me. He must have seen me shaking then, seen the tears that I couldn’t stop running down my face. 

The first gentle touch of his fingers to my cheeks startled me, and I turned my head to him and finally opened my eyes. 

Oh gods above curse those beautiful green eyes. 

In them, in his soul, I saw many things. Worry for my tears, Ache for what was causing them, Hope fluttering in their golden brown flecks, Yearning as they quickly glanced at my lips before moving back to my eyes, but most prominently, and most surprisingly, was an overwhelming amount of love. 

He leaned down and kissed just bellow one of my eyes, keeping his hand on my other cheek to wipe way the tears that had fallen there. I could do nothing but lean into his touch, suddenly realizing how starved I was for it. 

His lips should not be that gentle, that soft and kind. 

“Please don’t cry,” he whispered, and, even softer, I thought I might have heard ‘my love’ attached to the end of it, but whatever it was, it was hardly more than a breath. 

He pulled back slightly, and I tilted my head up so that our lips were barely touching. He startled me again by being the first to move closer, pressing our lips more firmly together. 

When we parted, he quickly buried his face in my hair, and I could see a blush forming on his cheeks as his moment of bravery faded. 

Was there a single feature about him that wasn’t so unbearably adorable? 

“Thank you, Muriel,” I whispered, his only answer being a small kiss pressed to the back of my neck as his arm wrapped around my waist. He didn’t need to use elaborately composed poems or dramatic heartfelt confessions for me to understand how he felt for me, just this was more than enough. 

We fell asleep like that, with him behind me, holding me in those great big arms of his with his face comfortably snuggled into my neck. 

I dreamed that night of wildflowers floating in a small body of water. But the water looked like liquid starlight and the flowers seemed to be twirling around each other in an intricate dance. I was filled with such a wonderful sense of peace, and I knew the cause. I had cut my chest open and offered Muriel my heart, and he, as if he could have been anything else, was gentle and kind and loving.

And mine. He was mine now despite the fact that he had stolen my heart long ago. Though, I didn’t try too hard to keep him from having it.

**Author's Note:**

> So that was me putting as many symbols of happiness and love I could remember into a single dream. Also, while writing these little stories, I’ve fallen even more helplessly in love with this man despite thinking that I had already fallen as far as I could. I’ve never wanted to use so many paragraphs just to describe how beautiful someone’s smiling eyes are but whoops guess I’m here now. If you didn’t know, the title is also the name of a really beautiful song that I never fail to think of Muriel while listening to.


End file.
